git-blame-someone-else
A small shell script that rewrites a commit's author to someone else. It's a joke, and it rewrites history.
- Stars
- 11.7k
- Forks
- 261
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- Shell
- Last update
- 2.9 years ago
- Type
- CLI
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
This is a shell script that changes the author and committer recorded on a git commit to a name you specify. The author wrote it as a joke, and the README warns it can damage a repository if misused. It is useful mainly to see how git stores authorship, not for real work.
- Rewrite the author of a commit in a local test repo to see the change in git log
- Practice inspecting commit metadata with git
- Study the shell script as a small example of a git subcommand
Great for
- Developers curious about how git stores author and committer information
- People experimenting in a throwaway test repository
- Anyone who wants a light, humorous example of a git command extension
Not ideal for
- Teams with shared or production repositories, because the README warns it can delete or alter history
- Anyone trying to keep an accurate audit trail, since it falsifies who wrote code
- Beginners who are not comfortable undoing git history changes
How to get it
- 1
Clone and build from source
You'll need: git · make · sudo access for the install step
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jayphelps/git-blame-someone-else.gitEnter the project folder
cd git-blame-someone-elseInstall system-wide
sudo make install - 2
Run it
- Clone the repository and enter its folder
- Run sudo make install
- Test on a throwaway repository, not real work
- Run git blame-someone-else <author> <commit> on a chosen commit
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Only use it in a disposable test repository you can recreate
- Check the result with git log afterward to confirm the change
- Read the script source before running it, since it rewrites history
Downloads
Strengths
- Simple to install and run, with a single make install step
- Small codebase that is easy to read
- MIT licensed, so it can be freely studied and modified
Trade-offs
- The README says it was written as a joke and may delete or break repositories
- Changing authorship misrepresents who wrote the code, which can cause real problems in shared projects
- The README does not document details of how it rewrites history or how to undo it
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.